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Copied without permission from San Francisco Chronicle, April 6, 1994, pg. A13

"Film Maker Marlon Riggs Does of AIDS: His 'Tongues Untied' video looked at
gay black men"
by Evelyn C. White and Teresa Moore, Chronicle Staff Writers

Emmy Award-winning film maker Marlon Troy Riggs, whose ground-breaking and
controversial documentaries explored popular black culture and the lives of
gay black men, died yesterday morning at his home in Oakland from
complications of AIDS. He was 37.

Riggs, who taught in the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of
California at Berkeley, challenged audiences with his deeply personal and
provocative documentaries. By drawing viewers into the lives of blacks and
gay black men, he forced the mainstream to see these people as they see
themselves.

His most famous work is "Tongues Untied," a documentary that drew
international acclaim and the ire of the Moral Majority. The video, which
explored the lives of gay black men, became a symbol of the fight over
artistic freedom and the government's monetary support of the arts.

His work includes the 1991 Peabody Award winner "Color Adjustment," which
explores American race relations through the lens of prime time television
programs. He also made the 1988 Emmy Award winner "Ethnic Notions," which
reveals how racial stereotypes influence public attitudes about black
people.

"The news of Marlon's death is devastating to all of us who believe in
artistic freedom and African American culture," said Henry Louis Gates,
Jr., W.E.B. DuBois professor of humanities and chair of the Department of
Afro-American Studies at Harvard University. "His death points to the
urgency of finding a cure for this God-awful disease. This is a very sad
day for all of us."

In Riggs' 1988 documentary "Tongues Untied," he gave voice to gay black men
who had been relegated to the fringes of both black and gay cultures. He
placed the experiences of several gay blacks -- including himself and his
HIV-positive status -- at the center of the work.

Critics lauded "Tongues Untied," which broke documentary conventions by
replacing the invisible "voice of God" narrator with the spoken work of the
gay black poets on screen. But Christian fundamentalists and Senator Jesse
Helms blasted the documentary for its frank expressions of gay black lives.

While Helms fought to end National Endowment for the Arts support of Riggs'
work, the Rev. Donald Wildmon began a national campaign against public
broadcast of "Tongues Untied." The documentary, which aired on public
television in 1990, was named best documentary at the Berlin International
Film Festival.

In 1991, Riggs established Signifyin' Works, a nonprofit corporation to
produce educational materials about blacks. At the time of his death, he
was completing "Black Is ... Black Ain't," a documentary examining issues
of identity within black communities.

On Feb. 3, 1957, Riggs was born into a military family stationed in Fort
Worth, Texas. He was baptized at the age of 8 at the Shiloh Missionary
Baptist Church in Fort Worth. As a child, he suffered the racism that he
would later examine in his films.

When he was in the seventh grade, his family moved to Augusta, Ga., where
he became the first black student to win the town spelling bee. But his
school refused to sponsor his trip to the state competition.

Riggs said he felt some respite from humiliations born of racism when his
family moved to Germany, where he attended high school.

In 1978 he graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor's degree in history
from Harvard University. In 1981, he earned a master's degree in journalism
from the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California at
Berkeley.

In 1987, Riggs began teaching in the television program at the Graduate
School of Journalism, and in 1992 he became one of the youngest tenured
professors in the arts and humanities at UC Berkeley.

"He encouraged his students to make documentaries that are self-revelatory
and which explore the experience of being 'the other,' that is, at the
margins of the dominant culture," said Karen Everett, one of his former
students who is making a documentary biography of Riggs.

"I remember the day he revealed to us students how his first brush with
death -- life-threatening kidney failure -- energized the making of
'Tongues Untied.' We were enraptured by the candor and the stature of this
unassuming man."

Riggs was the recipient of numerous fellowships, including support from the
American Film Institute, the Rockefeller Foundation, the National Endowment
for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the California
Council for the Humanities.

The lists of his honors and published writing fill several pages. In June
1993, he received an honorary doctorate from the California College of Arts
and Crafts.

Riggs is survived by Jack Vincent, his life companion with whom he made his
home in Oakland, and his parents, Jean and Alvin Riggs, and his sister,
Sascha, all of Arlington, Va.

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"Silence kills the soul; it diminishes its possibilities to rise and fly
and explore. Silence withers what makes you human.  The soul shrinks, until
it's nothing." -- Marlon Riggs